{"id":38432,"date":"2024-12-27T19:22:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T03:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38432"},"modified":"2024-12-27T19:33:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T03:33:27","slug":"mission-artist-animates-green-utility-boxes-with-a-flock-of-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/27\/mission-artist-animates-green-utility-boxes-with-a-flock-of-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission artist animates green utility boxes with a flock of birds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/strong> DECEMBER 25, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Utility
A bird painted on a Mission District utility box by artist Claudio Talavera-Ball\u00f3n. Photo by Yujie Zhou, Dec. 23, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chestnut-backed chickadees, yellow warblers and other feathered birds have landed this winter on otherwise-unassuming green utility boxes along South Van Ness Avenue and Bryant Street in the Mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These 20 feathered friends are the creation of Claudio Talavera-Ball\u00f3n, a Mission-based Peruvian painter<\/a> sponsored by the nonprofit Paint the Void to paint 10 Mission utility boxes, part of a project to remake 250 utility boxes across San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an effort to color the utility boxes that store infrastructure for nearby traffic lights across the city. Elsewhere, dozens of artists have covered the \u201cmunicipal green<\/a>\u201d boxes with pandas<\/a>, a girl on the swing<\/a>, and a naughty astronaut<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talavera-Ball\u00f3n\u2019s flock, all Bay Area species, can be seen at almost every intersection on South Van Ness between 14th and 22nd streets. In the last two months, they\u2019ve become fixtures of the Mission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Some birds visit their own portraits. When he started working on the tiny chestnut-backed chickadee at Bryant and 17th streets, Talavera-Ball\u00f3n said, \u201cI started seeing a lot of [chestnut-backed chickadees] in the Mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He chose \u201cthe most colorful\u201d birds to depict. It took him 10 eight-hour days to finish the renderings \u2014 sometimes longer, if he needed to erase and redraw the eye. The latter, he said, is the key to bringing a bird to life. \u201cIf you see the eyes of the bird, the birds are watching you,\u201d said Talavera-Ball\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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